An 'enohp' is a 'phone', only the other way round.

[GeneD]

a. Excuse me. Could you tell me where the enohp is?
b. What's an 'enohp'?
a. An 'enohp' is a 'phone', only the other way round.

It's rough translation of mine of a dialogue from a classical Soviet film. I'm just curious, how the underlined part would sound in English. Would it be natural/comprehensible to the native speakers here? If not, what would you expect to see/hear there? Maybe 'from back to front'?

 

[probus]

I would not be able to guess the meaning of 'the other way round". Use "spelled backwards" (or "spelt backwards" in BrE).

 

[slevlife]

"The other way around" is understandable to me here. But yes, "spelled backward" is even more explicit/clear.

That said, this dialog sounds pretty dumb/pointless when translated into English. Maybe it sounds better in Russian? E.g., perhaps the reversed version of "phone" sounds more like a real word in Russian than it does in English?

 

[GoesStation]

A village just a few miles away from mine is called Enon. It's a rather bland, suburban place. Some people feel it's fitting that Enon spelled backwards is none.

 

[GeneD]

That said, this dialog sounds pretty dumb/pointless when translated into English. Maybe it sounds better in Russian? E.g., perhaps the reversed version of "phone" sounds more like a real word in Russian than it does in English?

It does. Not exactly like a real word like in GS's example. Rather like a real word that the interlocutor doesn't know because it doesn't exist. This strange word was used to drag women (complete strangers) into a conversation.

But it doesn't really matter to me whether it sounds dumb in English or not. I'm not translating the film into English. I was just curious to know how to convey the idea correctly.

 

[Tdol]

It sounds weird.

 

[GeneD]

Does it? Maybe because I was replying in a foreign language around midnight (when my brain was almost sleeping) I wasn't trying hard enough to explain the situation. Here's the film I took the dialogue from. At around 25:30 or so two guys are trying to pick up girls with this word just to start conversation. I see nothing weird about it.

It should be noted, however, that by the 'phone' they meant 'telephone booth'. In Russian, we would simply say 'phone' meaning it.

I don't know if the quality of the translation (there are English subtitles) is satisfactory, but you might want to give the film a try and watch it. It's a light comedy with nothing weird. The only thing that can make the impression of the situation or the film on the whole being weird is poor translation. But I can't judge it, unfortunately.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

A village just a few miles away from mine is called Enon. It's a rather bland, suburban place. Some people feel it's fitting that Enon spelled backwards is none.

It must be near Erewhon!

A town near me is called Freeport. It's expensive, and ships stopped going generations years ago. (Cruise ships stop in the better-named Portland and bus people to Freeport to shop.)